Advent encourages us to hope

Sometimes, it hurts to hope. The suffering of waiting, of longing, of the "not yet" can seem futile and foolishly childish. It is easier to throw in the towel, to pretend like we never wanted it, anyway.

But then, ushering us into winter, Advent comes. It reminds us: Even though it's getting dark and cold and barren, keep expecting. Keep longing. Keep hoping. Your God is coming in a more tangible way than you could have dreamt or asked for or imagined.

It happens in the town of Galilee, to a woman going about her daily life, preparing to marry a man named Joseph. Maybe she is doing housework, maybe she is praying, maybe she is walking outside, but an angel comes and tells her she is to be the mother of the Son of God. It seems impossible, and she wonders at it.

In God's kindness, the angel gives Mary a sign of encouragement, telling her that her cousin who is well past child-bearing age is also pregnant. "Nothing will be impossible for God," he tells her. You can have hope, Mary. You can have faith. You can trust. And she does.

She goes "with haste" to visit her cousin, so they can be together to watch the Lord's promises to them and to the world through them bear fruit. Because even now, there is a time of waiting and preparation. "'Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled,'" Elizabeth tells Mary in Luke 1:45 (NAB). "Blessed," she says. Even though you can't fully see it yet or don't yet fully understand. "Blessed are you."

Advent and Christmas remind us that even if it seems impossible right now, God makes a way. And when we believe that, we are blessed.

Henri Nouwen writes it like this: "When we live with hope, we do not get tangled up with concern for how our wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, our prayers are not directed toward the gift but toward the One who gives it. Ultimately, it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith in the giver of all good things. ... Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the promise to come through, even though you never know when, where or how this might happen."

A priest recently reminded me Advent is a time of hopeful expectation. It is not a time when we look around at all of the things we don't yet have and are sad; it is a time when we look forward with excitement and joy to all of the things yet to come. We can live with a lightness and freedom knowing that even when we can't see it, God is working on our behalf. We don't have to figure out how; like Mary, all we need to do is say yes to God in the present moment.

We have a straightforward God; God is not one who tells us one thing and does another. Blessed are you who believes that what God has told you, God is bringing to fulfillment.